Book Review: Sinnissippi Saga: A History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois by C. Hjalmar Nelson

and to those who have been associated with the immigrant institutions
described. This was undoubtedly the aim of the author. In terms of
this limited aim, he has succeeded.
Paul A. Varg
Michigan State University
SINNISSIPPI S A G A , A History of Rockford and Winnebago County,
Illinois. Compiled and Edited by C. Hjalmar Nelson. Rockford: Winne­bago
County Illinois Sesquicentennial Committee, 1968. 536 pp.
In writing a commentary on this volume one is irresistibly drawn
towards a backward look to another period. It is a form of nostalgic
self-indulgence that can easily be overdone, but there is something
about 40-50 years back that has a special pull where one's home
town is involved.
Reading SINNISSIPPI SAGA has been an altogether personal ex­perience
for I know or knew of so many persons appearing in the
book. A thorough second reading of this history confirmed a first
impression — that it is an unusually well-conceived and well-edited
local history. When it came to hand, I rather expected it to be a
compendium of twenty-four prose styles reflecting the individual
concepts of the twenty-four contributors of sections or chapters. I
was pleased to find it well-coordinated and smooth. At this point it
appears fitting to accord great credit to C. Hal Nelson, who compiled
and edited the History. It is no small job first to break up a history
of this type into the proper chapters, then to select writers to handle
them. Hal Nelson not only picked outstanding persons but melded
their results into a smooth-reading and substantive contribution.
There is not a weak chapter in the book, for each represents a fan­tastic
amount of historical research and the material reflects under­standing
and a strong desire to make a contribution of quality. This
volume must be one of the top contributions to local history coming
out of the Illinois Sesquicentennial.
Rockford having such a marked Swedish background, one wondered
if the chapter on the contributions of the Swedes might be given too
much weight. But Herman Nelson, while giving a very fair and
moderate amount of credit to this one ethnic group, used admirable
restraint and fine judgment in appraising the contributions of A L L
groups and individuals, American and foreign born. His is a chapter
marked by high academic standards of historical writing. I mention
this chapter particularly for it must have been a difficult one to write.
Ellen McHugh's chapter is a moving one for it includes letters from
the pioneers, and how revealing they are. Where can one find a more
poignant letter from a pioneer than that written by Stephen Mack on
209
the death of his Indian wife, Hononegah? The five chapters on politics
and government are also exceptionally well done. Milton Mahlburg's
section entitled "In the Beginning, Before Settlers Arrived," is a
professional job.
Each of the twenty-four writers seems to have been inspired by
Carl Sandburg's dictum that to write good history demands an endless
amount of "sifting and selecting."
In closing one must give proper credit to the photographers who
went all out, both in their pictures and in the selection of the historical
scenes. A cooperative effort of this type is rarely really successful and
all persons connected in any way with the production of SINNISSIPPI
SAGA deserve great credit.
Vilas Johnson
CENTURY P L U S . Edited by Roger Carlson. Chicago: The Salem
Lutheran Church, 1968.
Today's youth will not be ignored. They may be criticized, con­demned,
even punished for their rebellion against the status quo, but
they insist on being heard. Probably the last place one would expect
to find the impact of youth is in a book which records the history of
a church congregation celebrating one hundred years of service to
people. Yet in C e n t u r y P l u s , the centennial publication of the Salem
Lutheran Church of Chicago, the editor, Roger Carlson, son of a
Swedish immigrant, has placed the creative hand of youth and built
one small bridge to link the generations. To the "now" generation,
which says it is not concerned with history because of the mistakes
of its forefathers and the serious omissions of historians in recording
the past, history makes little sense if it records and inspires but fails
to offer help to a bewildered world. To bridge this gap, original, con­temporary
art, photographs made by using the camera in creative
ways, and essays written with a look to the future while recording
the past, have been selected as a basis for relevancy to youth and to
others who may believe there is merit in their thinking.
The authors of the historical vignettes have been or are now mem­bers
of the Salem Church. Several are pastors who have become
leaders in the church-at-large, while others are community leaders
dealing with social problems in their daily work. All bring a per­spective
to the essays which prevents the material from becoming
provincial in its scope. Conrad Bergendoff, a significant leader in
world ecumenism, records the development of the congregation from
a group of "our kind of people" with old-world ideas of separatism
by language and by race, to a church which welcomes the newcomer
in each era, whatever the nationality or color. He sees hope for the
210

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and to those who have been associated with the immigrant institutions
described. This was undoubtedly the aim of the author. In terms of
this limited aim, he has succeeded.
Paul A. Varg
Michigan State University
SINNISSIPPI S A G A , A History of Rockford and Winnebago County,
Illinois. Compiled and Edited by C. Hjalmar Nelson. Rockford: Winne­bago
County Illinois Sesquicentennial Committee, 1968. 536 pp.
In writing a commentary on this volume one is irresistibly drawn
towards a backward look to another period. It is a form of nostalgic
self-indulgence that can easily be overdone, but there is something
about 40-50 years back that has a special pull where one's home
town is involved.
Reading SINNISSIPPI SAGA has been an altogether personal ex­perience
for I know or knew of so many persons appearing in the
book. A thorough second reading of this history confirmed a first
impression — that it is an unusually well-conceived and well-edited
local history. When it came to hand, I rather expected it to be a
compendium of twenty-four prose styles reflecting the individual
concepts of the twenty-four contributors of sections or chapters. I
was pleased to find it well-coordinated and smooth. At this point it
appears fitting to accord great credit to C. Hal Nelson, who compiled
and edited the History. It is no small job first to break up a history
of this type into the proper chapters, then to select writers to handle
them. Hal Nelson not only picked outstanding persons but melded
their results into a smooth-reading and substantive contribution.
There is not a weak chapter in the book, for each represents a fan­tastic
amount of historical research and the material reflects under­standing
and a strong desire to make a contribution of quality. This
volume must be one of the top contributions to local history coming
out of the Illinois Sesquicentennial.
Rockford having such a marked Swedish background, one wondered
if the chapter on the contributions of the Swedes might be given too
much weight. But Herman Nelson, while giving a very fair and
moderate amount of credit to this one ethnic group, used admirable
restraint and fine judgment in appraising the contributions of A L L
groups and individuals, American and foreign born. His is a chapter
marked by high academic standards of historical writing. I mention
this chapter particularly for it must have been a difficult one to write.
Ellen McHugh's chapter is a moving one for it includes letters from
the pioneers, and how revealing they are. Where can one find a more
poignant letter from a pioneer than that written by Stephen Mack on
209
the death of his Indian wife, Hononegah? The five chapters on politics
and government are also exceptionally well done. Milton Mahlburg's
section entitled "In the Beginning, Before Settlers Arrived," is a
professional job.
Each of the twenty-four writers seems to have been inspired by
Carl Sandburg's dictum that to write good history demands an endless
amount of "sifting and selecting."
In closing one must give proper credit to the photographers who
went all out, both in their pictures and in the selection of the historical
scenes. A cooperative effort of this type is rarely really successful and
all persons connected in any way with the production of SINNISSIPPI
SAGA deserve great credit.
Vilas Johnson
CENTURY P L U S . Edited by Roger Carlson. Chicago: The Salem
Lutheran Church, 1968.
Today's youth will not be ignored. They may be criticized, con­demned,
even punished for their rebellion against the status quo, but
they insist on being heard. Probably the last place one would expect
to find the impact of youth is in a book which records the history of
a church congregation celebrating one hundred years of service to
people. Yet in C e n t u r y P l u s , the centennial publication of the Salem
Lutheran Church of Chicago, the editor, Roger Carlson, son of a
Swedish immigrant, has placed the creative hand of youth and built
one small bridge to link the generations. To the "now" generation,
which says it is not concerned with history because of the mistakes
of its forefathers and the serious omissions of historians in recording
the past, history makes little sense if it records and inspires but fails
to offer help to a bewildered world. To bridge this gap, original, con­temporary
art, photographs made by using the camera in creative
ways, and essays written with a look to the future while recording
the past, have been selected as a basis for relevancy to youth and to
others who may believe there is merit in their thinking.
The authors of the historical vignettes have been or are now mem­bers
of the Salem Church. Several are pastors who have become
leaders in the church-at-large, while others are community leaders
dealing with social problems in their daily work. All bring a per­spective
to the essays which prevents the material from becoming
provincial in its scope. Conrad Bergendoff, a significant leader in
world ecumenism, records the development of the congregation from
a group of "our kind of people" with old-world ideas of separatism
by language and by race, to a church which welcomes the newcomer
in each era, whatever the nationality or color. He sees hope for the
210